Are International Flights Necessary?

[TigerBright19 1,990]

Thousands of flights are still flying each day.  Are they really practical during a global lockdown?  Will future generations look back and think we were borderline insane to keep air traffic fully open?  Here is a live radar of global air traffic.  I clicked on a random plane and it was flying from London to China.  They look like missiles heading for ever major city.  Looks like a biological warfare travelling in First Class.  Why are there so many flights across America?  Are there no airport closures?

 

Flightradar24: Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map

 

 

Edited January 28 by TigerBright19

[acute 67,909]

29 minutes ago, TigerBright19 said:

Are International Flights Necessary?

Not for business meetings.

 

Edited January 28 by acute

[Imaginarynumber1 22,820]

[President Wearer of Hats 35,305]

3 hours ago, TigerBright19 said:

Thousands of flights are still flying each day.  Are they really practical during a global lockdown?  Will future generations look back and think we were borderline insane to keep air traffic fully open?  Here is a live radar of global air traffic.  I clicked on a random plane and it was flying from London to China.  They look like missiles heading for ever major city.  Looks like a biological warfare travelling in First Class.  Why are there so many flights across America?  Are there no airport closures?

 

Flightradar24: Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map

 

 

Aren’t most international flights these days for trade and not tourism?

[President-Elect Acidhead 12,050]

Only Essential... you must be essential. 

Clown Show 

[MysteryMike 232]

If they really want to stop this virus. All flights should be cancelled period.

Especially if newer and deadlier strains are discovered in the near-future.

But nope money is first apparently. Forget the innocent lives kept being put at risk!

Edited January 31 by MysteryMike

[spartan max2 18,100]

The virus is so wide spread at this point that I don't think stopping flights would really do anything unless you're in a country with zero cases.

Most nations aren't allowing flights for tourism atm. Just for whatever other reasons are.

[MysteryMike 232]

On 1/30/2021 at 8:05 PM, spartan max2 said:

The virus is so wide spread at this point that I don't think stopping flights would really do anything unless you're in a country with zero cases.

Most nations aren't allowing flights for tourism atm. Just for whatever other reasons are.

Perhaps but doing so would prevent further mutated and deadlier strains that could potentially rise.

[TigerBright19 1,990]

On 1/31/2021 at 12:23 AM, MysteryMike said:

If they really want to stop this virus. All flights should be cancelled period.

Especially if newer and deadlier strains are discovered in the near-future.

But nope money is first apparently. Forget the innocent lives kept being put at risk!

I heard that it was expensive to keep the planes on the ground as the daily airport charges against the airline companies to use their land was so expensive (to essentially store their planes at big airports) and it was therefore 'cheaper' to keep the planes in the air even with no passengers.  Perhaps most of the planes on the live radar are flying mostly empty because it is more economical to keep them up, than to keep them grounded?  I recall when 9/11 happened and all planes were grounded, the airline companies wanted to get back up in the air again as quickly as possible because the cost of keeping their planes on the ground each day was so expensive that they could not afford to stay grounded.  Although I don't know if that report is relevant today because the airports may have reduced their permit fees to keep planes grounded, or if they have in fact increased their fees to get more profit from the airline companies who need to use their land during the lockdown.

 

 

Edited February 1 by TigerBright19